The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for formatting flow diagrams. Some software applications provide a launch screen including graphical elements providing users with access to various functions. The launch screen can display such graphical elements as nodes in a flow diagram connected by directional lines to illustrate the relationships among the various functions. Because the graphical elements are interconnected by the directional line elements as a flow diagram in the launch screen, how one element is displayed both affects and depends on how other elements are displayed. Subsequently, when the configuration of an element changes, it usually not only causes the display of the associated node to change, but also the display of other elements not directly associated in the flow diagram.
One approach to properly set the display characteristics of an element in a flow diagram is to restrict the person designing the flow diagram so that he/she must choose from a set of preset configurations when creating/modifying the flow diagram. Because the display characteristics of all elements in flow diagrams corresponding to the preset configurations can be provided along with the preset configurations, the resulting flow diagrams are likely to be displayed properly. This approach limits flexibility because flow diagram designers are restricted by both the preset configurations and the provided display characteristics of elements in corresponding flow diagrams.
Another approach to set the display characteristics of an element in a flow diagram is to leave the decision to the flow diagram designer. This approach gives the designer total control in flow diagram design, but it also burdens the designer with the responsibility of setting and updating display characteristics of all elements in the flow diagram, which is usually very tedious. Because any changes to the display characteristics of an element can potentially affect other elements directly or indirectly associated with the element, the process of setting and updating is usually tedious and time consuming, exposing the resulting flow diagram to human errors. This is especially the case when the flow diagram is on the launch screen of a software application, since the designer faces additional challenges of keeping the updated flow diagram well displayed to provide users with easy access to various functions of the application.